Kitap 10
5.7
After Ceos are NaxosNaxia. and Andros,Andro. considerable islands, and Paros, the birth-place of the poet Archilochus. ThasosTaschos. was founded by Parians, and Parium,Kemars. a city in the Propontis. In this last place there is said to be an altar worthy of notice, each of whose sides is a stadium in length. In Paros is obtained the Parian marble, the best adapted for statuary work.The marble was taken from Mt. Marpessus. Pliny xxxvi. 5; Virg Aen. 6, Marpesia cautes.
5.8
Here also is Syros, (the first syllable is long,) where Pherecydes the son of Babys was born. The Athenian Pherecydes is younger than the latter person. The poet seems to have mentioned this island under the name of Syria; above Ortygia is an island called Syria.Od. xv. 402.Od. xv. 402.
5.9
MyconusMyconi. is an island beneath which, according to the mythologists, lie the last of the giants, destroyed by Hercules; whence the proverb, all under one Myconus, applied to persons who collect under one title things that are disjoined by nature. Some also call bald persons Miconians, because baldness is frequent among the inhabitants of the island.Myconi calva omnis juventus. Terence, Hecy. a. 3, s. 4; Pliny, b. xi. c. 37.
5.10
SeriphosIt was an erroneous opinion entertained by the ancients, that frogs did not croak in this island (Sirpho); hence the proverb, a Seriphian frog, βάτραχος σερίφιος. is the island where is laid the scene of the fable of Dictys, who drew to land in his net the chest in which were enclosed Perseus and his mother Danaë, who were thrown into the sea by order of Acrisius, the father of Danaë. There it is said Perseus was brought up, and to this island he brought the head of the Gorgon; he exhibited it to the Seriphians, and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge the wrongs of his mother, because their king Polydectes, with the assistance of his subjects, desired to make her his wife by force. Seriphus abounds so much with rocks, that they say in jest that it was the work of the Gorgon.
